This is a pretty wild rumor, but extremely interesting nonetheless. Leicarumors is reporting that the German camera maker could also be unveiling a digital camera with a black and white only sensor at its upcoming event in Berlin.

Obviously this would be a niche product, but would offer some obvious advantages to Leica’s discerning fan base. Almost all digital camera sensors feature a color filter array in order to be able to record a color image. A typical array features red, green and blue filters that essentially cut out other wavelengths to allow incoming light of that particular color only. The intensity of each color is then recorded and used to recreate the color image. Because of the color filter array, sensors are essentially throwing away a large amount of light that would otherwise hit the sensor. You can see how the most common type of filter, the Bayer color filter, works below.continue reading

Leica has been sending invites to an event in Berlin on May 10-11th. The invitation reads: We invite you to exclusively experience a whole range of product launches in a culturally and photographically unique atmosphere.

Now Leica had indicated in the past that it would be updating its M and X camera lines every three years, and both the M9 full-frame digital Rangefinder and the X1 APS-C cameras are due for an update this year, having been released in 2009.continue reading